Washington D.C.

So this will be a long post and that is why it has taken me forever to post it. Tom and I went a couple of weeks ago to D.C. and we stayed with my awesome uncle Chad and aunt Sue. We had an extra bonus of having one of my cousins and his wife visiting at the same time due to hurricane Ike. We had so much fun and I think that my feet almost fell off from all the walking that we did. Tom had never been to D.C. so we saw everything and it was really nice weather and the crowds were small because school was back in session. My uncle is in the Air Force and he lives really close so we were able to ride the metro everywhere. Our trip was possible because our friends Drew and Celeste watched Sophie for us, and my sister watched Bree thanks so much! We took the red eye so the first day we were pretty exhausted at the start. My uncle picked us up and took us right to Arlington Cemetery.


This is a Marine funeral which my uncle said is really rare and I think he said that it was his first time watching one with Marines. Marines use white horses and Army uses Black ones.


This is the Army funeral horse I think but the cool thing is the black boot that they have on the saddle to honor the soldier. Oh and this is a lovely pic of me with no shower or sleep for two days!


This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and it is really neat to watch the Change of the Guard. These guys do this in all conditions year round it’s amazing!



View of D.C. from Arlington Cemetery.

These are Segway’s and I have no idea how Tom was able to get me to do these because let’s just say traffic, bumps, rush hour sidewalk pedestrians, and lovely speeds of up to 30 MPH. So I was scared because they give you like ten minutes to feel comfortable on them but tell you not to step off or it will take off on you, and don’t run into anything because you surely will fall and look stupid. So they send us out into downtown D.C. and it is five o’clock and there are so many people walking and driving on the streets I really did panic. Then I had to cross the street and go up the little sidewalk ramp which is great until you get stuck half way up and don’t know how to make the stupid thing move. Yup so I stepped off because I thought I was going to kill Tom who was behind me. Nothing terrible happened luckily but every stupid slope I would get stuck on until finally the tour guide told me how to do it (That really should have been part of the training). So we rode these around for three hours and it was awesome. We were able to see everything in three hours that would have taken us days to see. We still went back to most of the sites to see them on our feet.










This is a blurry view from the top of the Washington Monument looking at the Lincoln Memorial.





WWII Memorial where we spent a long time because, my Papa served in the Navy in WWII and so we took so many pictures to hopefully give him so he can see it.


Bob Dole was there and both Tom and I really only know him from the Viagra commercials.


Lincoln Memorial.


Jefferson Memorial where we had to run and see and then run to the Metro to see the Nationals Baseball game.Tom actually started jogging with some random people because people are always jogging around D.C. and he finally decided to join them. The guys were so excited and were vvery welcoming!!




This is Tom and I with my uncle Chad and aunt Sue on the front row watching the Mets warm up. We had so much fun and laughed pretty hard when we took turns at the batting cage and all of us could only hit one ball out of all the pitches. You see those nice green hats. Well the first 2o,ooo fans were able to get a free one, and of course we were early because we had to do all the fun stuff before. Well the nice gentleman that was handing out the hats would not give me one. I thought he was joking with me and so I kept laughing but was like seriously dude give me my free hat. He then say’s to me you are not old enough. What? I told him I don’t understand and he told me you have to be 21 to get a free one because Miller Light was the sponsor. I laughed and went over to another guy, and he told me that if his boss would not give me one than he couldn’t. What? So Tom and my family are laughing and trying to tell the guy that I have two children and the big one is that I am 27 years old. Nope that did not work he told us that he did not believe us. So at 27 years old I was carded so that I could get my free hat. The guy looked at my license and handed me my hat and walked away. So I know that I had no makeup left after sweating buckets all day, and my hair was a greasy mess from sweat and humidity but I still think I look older than 21. So funny! We had so much fun regardless of my weird experience and it actually was a pretty good game and my uncle Chad had us play a fun game the entire time so it made the time fly. By the end of that night I was dead tired, and we had to wake up early to get our tickets to the Capitol. We forgot our camera the next day but we mainly saw museums and such and we were both really tired and grumpy so we retired to the house early. Thankfully,my lovely uncle and aunt had some great grub for us when we came back. That night we went with the family to the Pentagon 9/11 memorial which was sad because the first bench I look at is a 9 year old little girl and her brother. It is an amazing memorial, and then we went to the new Air Force Memorial and the new FDR Memorial which were both very neat. At the FDR we walked back to our car and we walked along the Potomac and I think that we said hello to a high price hooker because she was all alone late at night sitting on a bench. Weird!!






Air Force Memorial





Pentagon 9/11 Memorial



FDR Memorial has so many waterfalls its really neat.

So the next day we decided that we really needed some down time, so my Cousin Curt and his wife Julie wanted to go to the Temple and that sounded awesome to us. It is amazing and huge and I already get lost in all the Temples in Utah that I just knew that I would struggle to find my way in this one. Inside is amazing but one thing is different than in Utah, they do not have as many cute little ladies, and men standing in every door way showing you where to go. I made it just fine and it was really nice to be somewhere calm and relaxing. The rest of the day my poor uncle tried to teach me how to play tennis. I think that I might be a lost cause. It was so much fun playing for hours and I promised that the next time I would be better!




On our last day we went down to see the White house and to do a little shopping for our girls.


This is where visitors such as Presidents of other countries and really important people get to stay. Our Segway tour guide told us the funniest story about this place. He says that on one of his tours he had a guy that did maintenance or something on this house and so he told the tour that when these important people stay here and when they use the bathrooms the toilets have a 30 minute storage compartment for that person’s waste. Then they run in and retrieve the waste and do all sorts of tests on these people so that they know who is sick, dying and healthy. Gross but really interesting!!Of course the people that stay there have no idea right, otherwise nobody would stay there:)They also put the flag out of the country visiting to welcome them and when there are no visitors’ there is an American Flag out. When we went over to the other side of the White House we were stopped and had to wait for a long time to walk to the front side. Once we were able to walk in front of the White House we noticed that there was a long line of black Suburbans filing in. Must have been someone really special right? Then we flew home to our wonderful girls!!



The End I told you it was long!!

Sweet Things

Bree I love how you pose for every picture, and how excited you are to go to school every day. I love to listen to you tell me about what you learned about and who you played with at school. I love when you tell me all about your new friends and how you always forget to ask them their name...but at least you made a new friend. I love hearing from your teachers that you married Sam in the Temple, and you love to play dead because that means you must be listening to me and your daddy talking.

I love you Bree!!



Sophie I love watching you ride your bike and how instead of using the peddles you ride your bike Flinstone style with your feet. I love your big smile and how your eyes sparkle when you are doing something that makes you happy. I even love it when you scream and hit me when I take you inside after we are done riding bikes.

I love you Sophie




Tom I love that you brought me flowers after a long week, because you just knew that they would make me happy!!

I love you Tom!

Dots N' Daisies

So a couple of months ago my friend Celeste and I started making these cute wood block letters and my aunt was interested in selling them in her store. So we made a bunch and started a little blog site for our stuff just to see how things went and the reaction to our product. Anyways, it has been about two months and they have been doing really well. Even some family and friends have been awesome and ordered stuff from us
(Thank you Thank you and Thank you!)
We really appreciate the support:) Today we are putting our product in the Finer Consigner as well, which is a great store that I think our stuff will look really cute in!

Last week we also recieved a call from a sells rep for boutiques and she loves our product and wants to rep for our business.

What does this mean?

Well it is really exciting because she sells to 27 stores and everything is wholesale so we wouldn't have to wait for things to sell we would just recieve orders and such. So we meet with her on Tuesday and hopefully everything goes well and our product will be in more stores!!

Some of you all have already seen our stuff and have been such Angels for putting our website link on your blogs. We appreciate any advertising, and you would be shocked how many visits we get to Dots N' Daisies from friends and family blogs.There is another Dots N' Daisies blog site but ours is actually www.dotsndaisies.com and then you get forwarded to the temporary blog.

If you click on Dots N' Daisies it will take you to our temporary website. Tom has been working really hard on our website that should be up and running soon and I will put it on when it is completely finished.

This has been loads of fun and I feel like I have a creative outlet that gives me sanity!!

If you havent already, check our site out but remember the letters are cuter in person so if your in the area of the Paisely Pomegranate or Finer Consigner you should check them out. And let me know if there is anything you want so that you don't have to pay shipping through the website!!We can match colors to bedrooms, or any room in the house you just have to tell us the colors and what you like.

Proud Dad Post - Bree on High Dive

Well this is against what I do, but even Dad has a proud moment that he wants to share. So yes I am posting on a blog.
This first picture is courtesy of my Dad, it is a motion shot.
And Check out the Video


Bree I am so proud of you!
Maybe soon we can have her up on a water ski!(NO PRESSURE)

Sweetest Husband in the World!!

So this post is going to be about my sweet husband so for those of you not interested in how sweet he is then I am so sorry. Anyways, if you know Tom well you know that is a really handy guy and he actually really enjoys projects more than he lets on. So anytime I want something like tile in my front entry way, bead board and shelves in the girls room, and a ceiling fan, and the list could go on forever. So I have been working hard on a new project of my own which I will announce really soon to everyone(and no I am not pregnant!!)...but anyways I have been needing space to work on things and so I said to Tom I wish I had a desk in the kitchen that was like this and this. So the next day he starts drawing a desk and I think he is just being silly because I wanted a very specific desk that looks like my dining room table. Well yesterday I came home from swim lessons and my desk was in process of being built. I was shocked that he just knew what to do, because I thought he was going to have to take classes and stuff. So last night after keeping all our neighbors awake (Sorry if we really did) Tom and I finished painting and staining the desk and it is fabulous. It matches my kitchen and I love it! Tom was just really happy that he made a drawer, he kept saying to me can you believe I built a drawer and I was like hunny you are awesome!! These are pictures of my new desk and my really awesome husband!! the next project is shelves and a cabinet to put above it he he!!

Funny Kids

Bree has been doing swim lessons for the last couple of weeks, and usually around 4:30 I take her upstairs and I help her get ready. Anyways, yesterday I tried letting her do it all on her own and she did a fabulous job. So today I do the same thing and this is what she came downstairs in. I could not stop laughing and she was so serious and excited to go to swim lessons in this outfit. Kids are freakin cute!!



Then my little Sophie who has had a bad diaper rash ran around for a little while tonight to get some fresh air on her owie as she tells me every time I change her diaper. Anyways she proceeded to dance and hold her bum for the longest time, and we all were just laughing and watching her. Then she kept telling me "thank you", "thank you" like I had been torturing her for her entire life with these diapers. It was pretty funny to see her ride her fire engine with her bare bum, she loved it and freaked out when I finally tackled her to put her diaper on.

Summer fun!!

These are some pictures of Bree and Sophie at the Farm at Thanksgiving point with our good friends Anna, Thyce (I hope I spelled his name correctly), and Stacey. We had so much fun and Bree was able to ride a pony for the first time so thanks Oppermans for letting us tag along!! Sophie also had her first encounter with "Bob the Whale" our little kiddie pool. I think when water comes out of Bob's spout it really scares her but at least Ty loved it! We also talked Bree into trying skiing but by the time her ski's were on and she was out and ready she was already done. Even after we all tried to brib her with anything and everything possible the little stinker would not stop freaking out. We are hoping that by the end of the summer she will have tried. Also I was able to get Sophie's hair into a ponytail yipee! It is so weird because by the time Bree was one she had had a haircut every month with Tom and was sportin a ponytail by like three months... So funny how they are so different!! Bree has also had so much fun playing with her friend Avery from preschool there is a picture of them coloring together they are such cute friends!